in Education
Annual State of Education Report (ASER) 2012
Pratham’s Annual State of Education Report (aka ASER) for 2012 is out. You’ll find it here. Odds are you have an allergy towards massive PDF documents or you are the quintessential procrastinator. So what’s a man to do? Well… you wait for the good Krupakar Manukonda to read the report and start tweeting. Update: he has started …
The Last 500 Feet
[Editor’s Note: Paul Polak, social entrepreneur and author of Out of Poverty, wrote this highly informative narrative of the problems (and some proposed solutions) in the rural transportation area (what he terms as the ‘last 500 feet’) with stories from Orissa to Uganda to Bangladesh to Nepal to Somalia to Zambia and back to (Eastern) …
in General
Vibrant Gujarat 2013 Day #1 – Perspective in 12 Tweets
Madhu Kishwar shared a dozen tweets which summed up her takeaways from the first day of Vibrant Gujarat 2013. My personal favorites are #5, #6, and #9. 16 Even at risk of being damned for life by my secularist leftist friends, can't help but say Gujarat Summit very impressive. Had heard… — MadhuPurnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) …
in Investing
Indian Social Enterprises Getting a Silicon Valley Makeover
TechCrunch reports that Bangalore/Seattle-based Unitus Seed Fund got a fresh infusion of $8 million from a bevy of A-list investors – from Silicon Valley and Bangalore. I believe the entry of the Silicon Valley investors represents a major inflection point for the Indian social enterprise ecosystem. A major inflection point — not because there’s an …
in Challenges
Announcing Tata Social Enterprise Challenge
2012 has been the year of social enterprise challenges and social enterprise incubators in India. The exciting addition to the former is Tata Group’s announcement of the Tata Social Enterprise Challenge, a joint initiative with IIM Calcutta. Details below. TATA Social Enterprise Challenge – A Joint Initiative with IIM Calcutta aims to be India’s …
in Watsan
Most Indian men are Cambridge Men
At some point in your school (or college) years, you might have heard of this joke. Following the annual debate competition between Oxford University and Cambridge University, a few male members of both contingents were ‘cracking the porcelain’ at the restroom. The Oxford man finished first. As he meticulously washed his hands, he noticed the Cambridge …
in People
Meet the Indian Howard Lutnick: actually you know him well
If this is the first time you’ve heard of Howard Lutnick (or Cantor Fitzgerald), do read this, this, and this. Yesterday, I came across a FUCCHA post that listed out a long list of wonderfully humanitarian things that Ratan Tata did after 26/11 – not just for the Taj employees but for a veritable ecosystem of people/establishments around …
in Challenges
Siemens Stiftung announces the Empowering People Award
[Update: The deadline for the award application has been extended to Jan 31, 2013.] Munich-based Siemens Stiftung (“foundation” in German) wants to identify efficient technical solutions which empower people in developing and emerging countries to independently combat existential problems through the empowering people. Award (yeah – that’s exactly how the award is named). The Siemens …
in Watsan
Once upon a time in Seattle
B was born into an upper middle class family in Seattle. Born in the mid 1950s, B had two sisters and showed early signs of competitiveness when he organized family athletic games at their summer house. B was a voracious reader as a child, spending many hours poring over reference books, and also relished playing board …
in Investing
Justrojgar – India’s newest BOP employment exchange
Seattle and Bangalore-based Upaya Social Ventures alerted me about their recent investment into Justrojgar.com. While terms of the deal are not disclosed, Upaya has previously announced that their seed investments are in the $25,000 to $75,000 so Justrojgar is likely within that range. The press release blurb sets the context for Justrojgar thus: Justrojgar was designed as …
